Chapter 5 – "What do we do now?"
They walked down the stairs slowly together, Andy never letting go of his hand. Josh wasn't about to admit it, but the basement had never exactly been his favorite place in the world. His family used it mainly for storage, but they rarely went down there. Even with the lights on in the middle of broad daylight, the place was creepy.
"It's this way, I think," Josh said, heading off to the right.
Andy stopped dead in her tracks.
"Did you see that?" She yelled, pointing to the corner of the room.
Josh aimed the flashlight at where she was pointing, but saw nothing but an old bicycle that he had long outgrown and a hockey stick that had probably never even been played with.
"It's nothing," he assured her.
"I swear, I saw something," she insisted, clutching onto his arm.
"It was probably just a mouse. You're not afraid of mice are you?"
She rolled her eyes. "No."
As they took a few more steps, the fuse box appeared. Using the flashlight as his only source of light, Josh opened it up. He began to study the switches inside, trying to figure out which ones to turn. He felt Andy's hand on his shoulder. As he reached up to give it a reassuring squeeze, he realized that her right hand was still holding on to his other hand and her left was comfortably resting on his back. So, if both here hands were already occupied…
"Andy…"
He heard her scream as a hand came down on her shoulder as well. Josh whirled around just in time to see someone or something large rush by them both. At the same time, music started playing, but it was nothing like either of them had heard before. It sounded like a bunch of sounds just garbled altogether to some kind of strange rhythm.
"I told you I saw something!" Andy squealed, grabbing his arm.
"Yeah, okay, now I believe you."
He was trying not to panic. After all, there had to be some explanation for all of this.
As Josh saw the same dark object run by them again, all rational thoughts escaped his head. The object looked like a human form, but in the darkness, they couldn't be sure. The noises suddenly stopped and peaceful, but creepy elevator music began to play.
Andy started to run up the stairs, dragging Josh with her. They bolted as fast as they could go, slamming the door behind them.
"Okay, seriously, this is so not funny, Josh."
"I swear, Andy, I don't know what's going on."
"Oh, well then did you forget to mention that your house is haunted?!" She yelled. She obviously wasn't buying the fact that he also had no idea what was going on.
The music started getting louder and they began to hear banging coming from upstairs like someone was pounding on the floor. Doors started slamming all over the house.
Not knowing what else to do, they raced back into the living room. Their hearts were both racing. Andy could swear that hers was going to beat right out of her chest.
"Now what?" She asked, panting.
"I don't…"
The front door swung open. The wind and rain became louder as a shadowy figure, much bigger than a man could ever be appeared in the doorway.
"This way!" Josh began to run, dragging Andy by the hand behind him. He didn't exactly know where he was going, but he knew that they had to figure something out. There was a pounding at the basement door and the sound of someone coming downstairs from the upstairs.
"In here," Josh exclaimed, pointing at the hall closet. He pulled open the door and ran inside with Andy following him. He pushed aside the many jackets and other such paraphernalia that the family kept in the closet to make room for them. He wrapped his arms around her, trying to make her feel safe even though he felt nothing but.
"Okay," she whispered, "I would really like to know what the hell is going on here."
"If I knew, I'd tell you," he replied quietly.
"What do we do now?"
"I don't know."
Author's Note: Only one more chapter to go. It looks like I'll be making my Halloween deadline. The next chapter should be up in a few hours!
